Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) Price Target Raised to $78.00

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) had its target price hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $70.00 to $78.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on MC. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Moelis & Company from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Moelis & Company from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.50.

Moelis & Company Trading Down 1.6 %

Moelis & Company stock opened at $73.93 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $72.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.54 billion, a PE ratio of 139.49 and a beta of 1.37. Moelis & Company has a 12-month low of $46.24 and a 12-month high of $81.60.

Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The asset manager reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $273.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $273.58 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 12.15%. The firm’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.15) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moelis & Company will post 0.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. Moelis & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 452.83%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MC. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 63.5% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 497 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 115.8% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 995 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 534 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Moelis & Company by 193.0% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,081 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 712 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moelis & Company in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $75,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.53% of the company’s stock.

About Moelis & Company

Moelis & Company operates as an investment banking advisory firm. It offers advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters, as well as strategic, capital structure, and private funds advisory.